Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a
talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big
plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new
location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with
another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just
like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she
needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they
don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the
middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself
do-over:

And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is
given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser
drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her
life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But
Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the
unintended consequences of the best intentions.

From the mind
and pen behind the acclaimed Scott Pilgrim series comes a madcap new
tale of existential angst, everyday obstacles, young love, and ancient
spirits that’s sharp-witted and tenderhearted, whimsical and wise.MY THOUGHTS: I haven't had a book this year below a 3 star rating and while that is
great, it makes me wonder when the ax is going to fall. That being
said, Seconds was ax free. I loved this graphic novel and was so glad
when I saw it at my local library as it has been popping up all over
booktube.

Seconds tells the story of Katie and her messed up life
(as she sees it). I believe Katie is a tad young for a mid-life
crisis, but what she is going through sort of resembles one. She is in
the process of building a new restaurant, getting over a breakup, and
making new friends when she stumbles across a "house elf" who lives in
her current restaurant/apartment building. Katie learns she can eat a
magic mushroom and actually change something in her past, wake up the
next morning and start anew. However, Katie can't stop at one magic
mushroom do-over, and she has soon created a bunch of chaos along with
inviting some evil spirits in. I am sure I heard about these magic
mushrooms in college and I am pretty sure they created similar problems,
hmmmmm...

Nonetheless, the title "Seconds" says so many things
about this book. Katie is looking to open a new, more exciting second
restaurant, which is the cause of a lot of her angst. The name of her
first restaurant is Seconds. She keeps having seconds (and thirds and
fourths and fifths) of the magic mushrooms and she is constantly looking
for a second chance with many of her relationships. There is another
second analogy I could insert, but as it is a bit spoilerish, I will
just say "Read it yourself!"

The art in the graphic novel, while
wonderful and appropriate, can best be described as simplistic. The
color tones are primarily oranges, reds, yellows and black with a few
pages of purple when the evil gets really ramped up. Looking at this,
simplistic isn't really being fair. The art is great, but this book
seemed less muddied than some more recently read graphic novels. I have
never read the Scott Pilgrim books, and I enjoyed this stand alone. I
recommend it to anyone who like great art and a great storyline.